LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Animal rights must extend into university biology labs

Mar. 6, 2013

In the 1960s, I attended Florida State University for six years, during which I earned Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in social work. While I was usually an “A” or “B” student, the grade I am most grateful for is the “D” I received in Biology Lab.

At the time, I had not yet developed an animal consciousness, but I was nevertheless disgusted by cutting apart formaldehyde-preserved animals. I skipped more labs than I attended. The instructor could have failed me, but he magnanimously passed with a “D.” Had I failed the course, I would have had to repeat it because passing Biology Lab was a graduation requirement.

Although the Human Anatomy and Physiology Society (HAPS), which represents college-level anatomy and physiology teachers, endorses decisions to fully replace animal dissection, cutting up animals is still commonplace in FSU’s biology labs.When prepared for dissection, frogs are usually dropped in a water/alcohol solution.

It takes up to 20 minutes to kill the frogs this way. Other animals also experience much suffering before they become “specimens” at FSU.

The chemicals that preserve these animals of few [sic] irritate students’ eyes, skin and respiratory systems, and are carcinogenic.

Alternatives to dissection using computer programs or anatomical models are less expensive and longer-lasting than animal purchases. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has developed a dissectiontool called Digital Frog 2.5, which allows students to “cut” using a digital scalpel to explore animal anatomy and unlike dead animals that are cut up for dissection, it teaches students about how frogs’ odies [sic] work as well as about their natural habitats.

In considering whether to abolish animal dissection at our educational institutions, we should also ponder the words of Chris DeRose, president of Last Chance For Animals: “We are beginning to realize that our true needs are love, affection, justice, and humanity. Although we are taught this at a very young age, as we enter the school system, the institutions immediately begins to undermine this knowledge by conditioning us to be desensitized to other living creatures, starting with the dissection of these beings in the fourth and fifth grades. Thus the process of conditioning children to lack compassion begins.”

Joel Freedman329 North Main StreetCanandaigua, NY585-394-6059

Joel Freedman, of Canandaigua, New York, is a FSU alumnus. He chairs the public education committee of Animal Rights Advocates of Upstate New York.